yesterday was a good day...we took nearly all of my students into Los Angeles for a field trip; a few months ago we took them up to Santa Barbara to see the university and the mission, that was more traveling and not as much activity, yesterday was the opposite. we toured UCLA first, where I walked way WAY too much and totally fucked up my foot ( Read more... )

we had a faculty meeting today, and there was an attendance and discipline representative there from the district office to talk about the problem that we are having with kids being out of class; I swear these were his exact words ( Read more... )

met with admin. after school today and was informed that I will be teaching eleventh grade next year!! and they gave me a kick-ass co-teacher, and if that wasn't enough, we get to write the curriculum because it's a new grade to the school. there are all kinds of trainings and stuff we'll be going to this summer...so much for vacation, but totally ( Read more... )

so, I've kinda thrown myself into limbo; I saw my placement for next year and I wasn't thrilled. they have me teaching tenth-grade writing again, which is all fine and good, but I want to go to eleventh and stay with my kids. so I asked the asst. principal about changing it and she has gone back and forth a few times and said she wasn't sure, so I' ( Read more... )

if you have a Target Card or a Target Visa and you don't have a school designated for their education fund, please go to http://target.com/target_group/schools/search_school.jhtml and designate my school, #122974. Thanks folks!

my health science professor is a pompous ass, and he just made me feel like the most incompetent teacher on the planet. earlier this evening, I had already decided that I didn't really like him anymore when his lesson included a tirade about a teacher who was out sick and left a voice mail telling her substitute what to do...a voice mail! can you ( Read more... )

the kids were taking tests all day today, so as they finished they were all congregating outside of the auditorium. I needed to talk to one of them so I stuck my head out the door and yelled his name..."MARCO!" about half the kids turned toward me and yelled back "POLO!" I love my kids!

each week my kids write an in-class essay, and usually they are the mundane essays that one might expect from bored tenth graders, but every once in a while I get one like this, and it reminds me why I'm here. it was handwritten, I typed it, so you have to imagine the messy 16-year-old-boy handwriting, but I left the spelling and punctuation ( Read more... )

I had a crappy morning...woke up late, so that set everything back, showered and was getting dressed at 7:01 a.m., when I am usually halfway up the 710. Brent is sick so I had to move the truck to the parking space before I left, and as I stepped out of the apartment I noticed that someone took one of the empty water bottles I had put out for the ( Read more... )

yes, I realize that it's been a while since I've posted, and a LOT has happened so I'll do the Cliff's Notes version ( Read more... )